noncommissioned officer

plural noncommissioned officers

1. USalternativeAlternative form of non-commissioned officer.

   A platoon sergeant may only be a noncommissioned officer but he's the one his men look to when the bullets start flying.

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   “Our ability as a warfighting nation to pivot at speed, to stay ahead of these emerging technologies, is going to be really important in the future,” Caine said. “There’s a whole bunch of things that we need to do better as a joint force and as a Department of Defense along the lines of acquisition reform so that we can make sure that those young (privates first class) and E-1s and E-2s and (noncommissioned officers) have the kit and capability that they need.”

   2025 February 23, Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, Oren Liebermann and Katie Bo Lillis, “How retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Caine became Trump’s pick for Joint Chiefs chairman”, in CNN